Those who seized power in Kiev want to sour relations between West & Russia - Lavrov

The suggestion of Kiev's new self-proclaimed government to swap economic aid for the placement of US missile defense shield looks too much like an attempt to sour relations between the West and Russia, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Financial aid to the self-proclaimed government in Kiev is
currently being discussed, with US secretary of state John Kerry
arriving on Tuesday. Although the Russian Foreign Minister said
it had heard no previous mention of the swap, earlier on
Wednesday, Ukraine's ambassador to Belorus, Mikhail Ezhal did
mention that such an idea was in the works. When asked about this
suggestion at a news conference with his Spanish counterpart,
Lavrov said that " if it is true, then we have another
example wherein, completely unhindered by our Western partners,
those who have taken over the Rada are trying to gamble on the
relationship between Russia and the West, and are trying to cause
frictions in this relationship with their attempts at fishing in
murky waters."

Lavrov, for his part, believes that such ways of doing business
aren't serious enough and that "our Western partners are well
aware of these games."

The American missile defense shield in Europe has been a
continued topic of contention between Russia and the US. The idea
was supposedly always aimed at deterring threats from rogue
states like Iran and North Korea, but Russia was never convinced.
In November 2013, a welcome progress was reached in the P5+1
talks on Iran’s nuclear program, but that was followed by US
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel making a phone call to his Russian
counterpart Sergey Shoigu to say that this “does not
eliminate the need for US and European allies to continue
implementing missile defense plans in Europe,” according to
the Department’s website.

The Russian FM made a number of other observations on how the
Ukrainian crisis has unfolded, believing its escalation to be
tantamount to an armed coup aided by the West. “We are
certain that the root of all problems here is that the
international community did not react to the anti-government
protests in time; they were carried out by armed men and
accompanied with grossly illegal violations. Instead, [the
international community] praised those protests.”he said.

“In essence, it was an armed coup,” the Russian FM added

The foreign minister went on to say that Moscow pledges to do its
utmost to prevent further bloodshed and threats to civilian
lives.

In this sense, Lavrov believes that strong foreign praise for the
unconstitutional uprising is counterproductive to those aims.

According to Lavrov, special attention should have been given to
the February-21 agreement between ousted President Yanukovich and
Ukraine’s opposition, which was designed to ease the political
deadlock in the country.

The EU-brokered agreement, signed by President Yanukovich and the
opposition, sought an immediate cessation of hostilities. Part of
the agreement was a limiting of presidential powers in favor of
giving the Rada more, as well as a return to the 2004
constitution. A national unity government was also promised by
the two sides and Presidential elections were to be held as soon
as the new Constitution was adopted, but no later than December
2014.